The role of doctors and healthcare workers in direct contact with parents and children is paramount," said ECDC Director Dr. Marc Sprenger at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany.
At his annual hearing with the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger described the resurgence of measles in the EU as “one of the major events of this new decade”.
In an editorial in the scientific journal Eurosurveillance, ECDC noted that, based on numerous studies, paediatricians, family practitioners and nurses form the backbone of each national immunisation programme in the EU.
Starting 15 September 2011, ECDC will be coordinating the former EUVAC.NET network. It is a surveillance network covering measles, mumps, rubella, congenital rubella, pertussis and varicella EU Member States and three countries of the European Economic Area. Data will be hosted by the European Surveillance System (TESSy) at ECDC.
This article, included in The Journal of Infectious Diseases special supplement on measles and rubella, provides an overview of the affected groups and the public settings in which measles transmission occurred in Europe in 2005–2009.
In his speech before the EU Health Ministers recently, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger outlined several public health measures to meet the measles elimination target by 2015 in Luxembourg.
ECDC and WHO Europe jointly release “MESSAGE - MEaSles and rubella Self Assessment GEnerating tool” for public health experts, to facilitate assessment of the progress made towards measles and rubella elimination.
Between 19 January and 17 February 2011, 10 cases of measles (eight laboratory-confirmed and two probable) were reported in Oslo, with the majority of cases in a mainly unvaccinated Somali community.